Friendly gifts

I thought I had outdone her this time for sure. Whenever we approach a milestone birthday, my twin sister and I usually send each other extra special gifts. When we turned 21, she had a photo frame engraved and filled it with a collage of photos of the two of us. My gift to her couldn't have been as meaningful as hers was to me since I don't remember what I even gave her.

I think our 30th came and went uneventfully, too. But I knew I would send her something extra special for our 40th well before its imminent arrival. I think I started tossing ideas around a year or two ago. When I finally decided on something, it took me a long time to put it all together. It was challenging, but really a lot of fun to create a DVD slideshow of our past 40 years and syncing them with various songs, telling stories that would also have her recalling special memories and events.

She did get the DVD and claims to love it and says she and her family keep watching it. May it never eventually find its way to the archive DVDs to collect dust! Even if it did, I figured it would have that much more meaning whenever somebody came across it accidentally and chose to watch it. It would be the gift that kept on giving, in a sense. And surely, she couldn't top it.

But she did. I feel a little guilty knowing I just may be enjoying her gift to me -- also one that will keep on giving -- more than she enjoys mine to her. I just can't imagine that eye candy can be better than this!